A tragic van rollover accident in Iowa two weeks ago claimed the lives of young Amish father Ervin Borntreger, his one-year-old son, and two of his also very young nieces. Remarkably, the Amish community has allowed the Dyersville Commercial newspaper to publish an account of the funeral and even some photos. This article is noteworthy in that it gives us one of the closest looks…
Amish in Unity, Maine recently completed their yearly harvest of ice. This ice is to be used in their ice houses for cooling throughout the coming year. Harvesting ice from local ponds is a common practice among the plainest Amish, though the Amish in this community don’t exactly fit the conventional definition of “plainest”. From the report at centralmaine.com: UNITY — A group of 30…
Another year comes to a close. I hope yours was a good one. I’ll finish up 2022 with what I usually do – a look back at some favorite posts of the soon-to-conclude year. “Favorite” means well-commented or just generally liked by you (or me). I’ve listed these in no particular order, other than chronologically. And, one piece of news: I have been working for…
A potentially grim story with a happy ending in a Wisconsin Amish community. From WKOW: GRANT COUNTY (WKOW) — An Amish baby who was missing for two hours in Grant County Friday was found safe thanks to the help of a Good Samaritan. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office was first notified about the missing baby in Hickory Grove Township around 10:30 a.m. Sheriff Nate Dreckman…
This happened in the Geauga County Amish settlement, which is notorious for its wild youth and parties. The boy who lost his life early Sunday morning was 17-year-old Mark Slabaugh. It is described as an “Amish party” attended by around 200 people in this video report by WFMJ. Though he’s not identified as such anywhere that I can found, Slabaugh is a common Amish last…
Disturbing story from Northwest Pennsylvania. Based on the description of where it happened, I would guess this is the Spartansburg community in Crawford County. This report is from the Meadville Tribune: ROME TOWNSHIP — Pennsylvania State Police at Corry want the public’s help in finding two men involved in pointing a pistol at a teenage girl last week. The incident took place along Fish Flats…
Joseph Yoder is an Amishman in the Arthur, Illinois community. He recently did an on-camera interview for news channel WCIA. This is the second part, you’ll find part 1 here if you missed it. In this segment, Joseph talks about getting into the furniture business and challenges the community faces with technology. He explains how it came about that he was able to begin carrying…
Lovina Eicher (who last month commemorated 20 years of writing columns) answers this question in a recent Amish Kitchen column. Lovina has covered this big meal logistics topic before. I like these columns because they quantify just how much goes into these larger meals and events like weddings and benefits. The occasion here was a grilled chicken and pulled pork benefit dinner for Lovina’s daughter…
Joseph Yoder is an Amishman who works in the furniture industry in the community at Arthur, Illinois. Local news station WCIA had the chance to do an on-camera interview with Joseph. They’ve released it in two parts. Joseph of course had to consent to do the interview on camera. Not too typical, but it sounds like he might wish to further public education about his people…
So I haven’t ever seen a video like this before. In this remarkable recording, Bill Lyons filmed inside a building as it was being moved down the road to a new location by a bunch of Amish men and youth (around 150). If you’ve been around this site for awhile, you know I like to share the barn and building moves (an Amish specialty). Another…